Patient (P): “I’ve
come about two things: I get this rash, it’s on my arms, hands, on the soles of
my feet and on my back. My GP says it’s dermatitis and gave me steroid cream,
but it’s still itching. It might be linked to stress. I could live with it but
the itching is unbearable.

“The other thing
is bouts of severe insomnia. I alleviate it by taking Zopiclone but that is
quite addictive and it’s not something I want to be doing.

“When I am in
the grip of one of these itching episodes it’s diabolical. I can just
barely function. I get anxiety, palpitations, going hot and cold, feeling on
edge, not in a good mental state. I feel cold and shivery a lot of the
time. The rash is blotchy red, tiny
little blisters. It looks like little bits of blood under my skin which come up
to the surface and scatter. It feels like my skin is crawling. The
skin is crawling, it feels like little creatures, little ants, crawling all
over my body.

“It sets my teeth on edge (gesture - arms crossed over
her abdomen). It feels as if, if it carried on and I couldn’t contain it, I
would lose my mind.”

Jonathan Hardy
(JH): Say a bit more about losing your mind.

P: “Extreme fear,
feeling out of control, not feeling grounded. Feeling desperate, unhinged,
unsafe, not in a functioning state. You can no longer function, you’re not in
control. I’ve had snippets of this feeling of extreme fear on and off over the
last few years.

“My financial situation
has changed dramatically. It’s been an ongoing transition.
It’s a big change for me. There’s a fear that I won’t be able to support
myself emotionally or financially.

“My autonomic
nervous system feels on and alive. No matter what I do, I cannot switch
it off - if I meditate for an hour it just about...

“Everything is buzzing,
alive, like I’ve got some kind of electric shock going through me - a
low voltage buzz. I can almost hear the buzzing. My whole body is alive. There’s a constant low buzzing, if it made a noise it would be like zzzzzzzzzz, something
sending shockwaves through my chest cavity.

Insomnia – that’s
what I’m left with. I cannot switch it
off.”

JH: Please
describe your nature and personality.

P: “I’m empathic,
I can tune in and understand people’s pain. (hand gesture of a pincer with
finger and thumb). I’m introvert, capable of going on retreat for a few days,
but I generally like company and people. I’m headstrong: if I want to do
something, I will focus on it and I
won’t stop. I’m fiery, not as in angry, but fiery in that if something fires me
up, I focus on it and I don’t stop. I like to get it right, I’m
very driven and work too hard. I have a heavy case load and I’m constantly
thinking and creating the next thing I want to do. My mind is not at rest.
I’m ambitious, Iwant to make my mark.

“I like to learn
new things. (hand gesture pincer). I constantly feel I need to be learning
and moving on (body gesture moving forward). I want to learn more, so I can
be better than the other solicitors in my area, so that I’ve got an edge
(hand gesture pincer). I’ve always been driven like that. I work in a very competitive field. I need to make
sure that I’m on top of my game - but not in the sense of edging anyone else out. For me. it’s about being very thorough, so
I have the best tools to do the best possible job, so I get a name for myself.
That doesn’t come from resting on your laurels, it comes from staying abreast
of what is happening in my field. It is a world that is changing a lot (hand gesture). I’m passionate about what I do. I
find it completely fascinating.

“I do far more
than I see my colleagues doing (scratching - itching). I have to move on. It’s changing, I have to get better at what I do.”

JH: Do you have
any dreams?

P: “I’m in a
house. As you go through the door, your
whole body starts to be taken over. It’s a place where there are very dark
spirits and they’re coming at me. I used to have this dream as a child - being
dragged away by monsters that had prickles on them – or my body being taken
over by a force that is much stronger than me, being dragged back into the
wall, an alien, a monster with huge great big thorns over their body.

“The other thing
is that I have is an acute sense of smell.”

JH: Please tell me
about your childhood.

P: “I’m one of
three children. It was a stable environment but very repressive. We lived in,
not a state of fear, but it was not a relaxed environment. There were a lot of
food and eating disorders in my family. My youngest sister was severely
anorexic, her weight dropped to 4 stone. My mother had an eating disorder, she
ate virtually nothing. There was no food and we were hungry. My mother hated cooking, she never provided enough food for
us. If you said you were hungry
she’d be vile to you. There was always hunger.

“I’ve had extreme
fear on and off over the years.”

JH: Describe the
fear.

P: (pincer hand
gesture) “It’s a tense feeling of anxiety or a worry that something bad will
happen. It’s linked to aloneness and abandonment, the sense of feeling finding
yourself so alone that there is no
one there, there are no friends, no family. It’s very sterile. It’s a dead
place, bleak. There is absolutely no one there. It’s very extreme.”

JH: Say more about
this dead place.

P: “It’s absolute survival. Fear if there is nobody. There’s a fear that
I’m alone, and there is nobody. The feeling is desolate. It feels like I’m in a dark desert that goes on for
miles, infinite, desolate. I was aware of the relentlessness of it, it’s never
going to end. The reason I survived was I was so gregarious and that made me feel better when we saw cousins and
friends.”

Case analysis

Animal kingdom themesMake my markCompetitiveOn top of my gameHaving an edge“Not to edge anyone else out”A competitive field, “I do far more
than any of my colleagues”Making a name for myselfShe has clear themes of the Animal
consciousness of competitiveness.

Insect themesChangeOngoing transitionFear of povertyDrivenLearning moreDon’t stopDoing far moreConstantly improvingGetting better at what I doFascinatingClothing: stylish, quirkyCool, structured speechItchingCrawling sensation “like ants on me”AliensHand gesture: pincer-like with
finger and thumb is a characteristic insect hand gesture.The main theme in Insect cases is
one of having to change, improve and keep working.

Desert locusts develop bigger brains when they are swarming. The insects' phase of life - solitary or gregarious (swarming) - has a dramatic effect on their brains, according to research by scientists at Cambridge University. Brains of swarming locusts are 30% larger and far more developed in regions associated with learning and processing complex information. In solitary locusts, parts of the brain dealing with vision and smell are proportionately larger.

Core sensation: transformation between two states1. Solitary state which has a feeling of timelessness.2. Frenzy state which is very social.Panic and maniaFeelings of destructivenessSensation of “the end of the world”.Sensitivity to noiseHigh pitched buzzing in the ears, sensation of body
vibrating. Humming sensation.

1. Group dynamics: conformity, belonging, isolation.Either feeling part of the group or completely alone: no
intermediate state.Wanting to be part of the group and feeling involved.Feel rejection very deeply – feel they are horrible people
and unacceptable to the group.Suspicion that others in the group are talking about them.2. Fear of losing control.3. Physical contact: strong need for physical contact and
communication, which can lead to irritability and tension.The plague locust has tremendous destructive power. Swarms
of billions can destroy vast areas of crops and vegetation. It is also the
insect most widely eaten by humans. It exists for long periods in a solitary
form when food is scarce, but when food is plentiful more survive and repeated
physical contact between individual results in the hormonally-mediated change
into the gregarious form which reproduces rapidly, leading to enormous swarms.It is associated with deserts, and with famine and hunger –
important themes in this case.

The patient had a feeling of being in a desert that was
endless, timeless and infinite. This created a terrifying feeling of being
absolutely alone. In childhood, she was “gregarious” and the thing that was
“her saviour” was all her “friends and cousins”. This is exactly the dynamic of
this remedy: a solitary feeling that engenders fear and loneliness, alternating
with a gregarious state.

More information on these excellent provings can be found on
the Provings website www.provings.info.

Prescription:
Schistocerca gregaria 200, one dose

Follow up 3 weeks
later

P: “The itching
has gone. I’m very impressed. It’s such a relief. I have definitely felt an
improvement in mood, less anxiety. Sleep is better, a couple of nights I
haven’t taken any sleeping tablets.”

JH: How is that
buzzing sensation?

P: “Much less, hugely
better”.

Ongoing
follow-up: she has continued treatment for two years so far. She has
improved enormously. Her skin symptoms have gone. Sleep and energy levels are
much better. Anxiety and depression are far less. I changed to Schistocera
Americana after 18 months. My impression is that she has responded equally
well to both forms of the Locust remedy.

Hi Karen,
my advice is that you should consult a Homeopath in Australia. You may need this remedy ( although it is well known that people often think they can recognise themselves in remedy pictures when it is not really their remedy!) but even so it would be better to have proper, professional treatment under the guidance of a qualified practitioner.That way you are giving yourself the best chance to obtain lasting relief from your symptoms.

Karen
Posts: 2

Schistocerca americanaReply #1 on : Thu July 03, 2014, 02:46:59

Hello there, I found that some of these symptoms are similar to myself recently and over the past few years. I am very interested to know the remedy and how this is applied please? I live in Australia and would like more information on this topic. Many thanks Karen